Kind and liberal as her husband was in
every other thing, she dared not allude to a matter which had become the
centre of his nervous organization, like an indurated sore; and yet she
saw, from other than selfish considerations, that this hat was his own
worst foe.
Some positive vice--and he had none--some calculating conspiracy--and he
was direct as the day--some base amusement or hidden habit or acrid
disease would hold him in captivity and pervert his heart less than this
simple aberration of behavior. Had he been a hunchback men would have
overlooked it; a hideous goitre or wen they would not have resented; but
extreme gentility or high-bred courtesy could not refrain from turning
to look a second time at a man with a beautiful lady on his arm and a
steeple hat upon his head.
The existence of any subject man and wife must not talk together upon,
which is yet a daily ingredient of comfort and display, itself
disarranges their economy and finally becomes the chronic intruder of
their household; and, when it is a trifle, it seems the more an
obstacle, because there is no reasoning about it.
This Hat had long ceased to be external: it was worn on Milburn's heart
and stifled the healthy throbbing there. It made two men of him,--the
outer and the household man,--and, like the Corsican brothers, they were
ever conscious of each other, and a word to one aroused the other's
clairvoyant sensibility.
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